Strong party composition for those that want to steam roll and enjoy the story.

[Biggie]

So, where to begin.

I see many complaints about too difficult enemies, Owl bears at level 5 etc, man I love when this happens cause its great XP.
Harongar in Troll caves...many have issues. He was down in 1 round on hard. How you ask? Simple, let me get some compositions for you.

First off : Pets. Animal companions and in particular the Smilodon is absolutely nuts, they tank, they attack and ensure you can easier get off those flank attacks for sneak damage, outflank, precision attack etc.
How does flanking work? : If 2 friendly is attacking same target he is being flanked. Simple as that, meaning sneak attack on your melee is very strong. Get 1 rank rogue coupled with ackomplished sneak attacker, plus precision attack on your close combat companions and maybe you, for 3d6 extra damage per attack, literally per attack.

Now for party composition

Your class? Best class hands down and most easy is normal ranger, you get smilodon at level 4, animal companion boon on that.
Why ranger? Best weapon literally in the game is already early act 2, Longbow hitting for 4d6 damage. But what about Ekanduy? He can have the Lucky bow or staglords bow.

So with Ekanduy you have 2 pet companions. This will help alot.

Valerie : At level 2 pop 1 level of monk into her and pick up Crane style. This will give her +2 to hit and +1 ac when using Defensive style. (from -4 to -2), give her 3 mobility and defensive style gives her 4 AC. Get her to fighter 5 ASAP so she can use tower shield without penalty, buy the tower shield in your capitol, you wont find anyone better, almost ever.
Valerie correctly built will very early start rocking into the 40s of AC.

Example of my Valerie build : her Companion quest vs Fredero I think his name is, the Paladin that people have a hard time with. I clicked in hard, and went to drink coffee. She didnt drink a single potion. He could not hit her. She killed him and wolaa, some nice gear.

Weapon on Valerie : Forget Bastard sword. Best weapon in game for Valerie drops early act 2. +3 heavy mace, 2d6 base dmg with permanent freedom of movement. This is by far the best tank weapon you can find. She is immune to CC but fear and her hit goes through the roof. So dont waste points into weapon focus bastard sword, instead eary get it into heavy mace. Take Dodge, armor master and shield master on her.

Weapon specializations in general : Do not bother with this. If your a melee fighter, dont bother. Instead take the feats : Outflank and Precision Strikes : These give you extra to hit and damage and you will get those bonuses and extra damage on majority of your attacks. never, ever specialize in a weapon cause you will find so many different weapons.

Sword Saint : So you want to play a hyper sword saint from hell? Well the weapon you want to focus on is either Scimitar or Rapier. Why? You will find an insane Magus scimitar in act 2 and same goes for Rapier. Forget Estoc. You will not find one until late late game. Rapiers and Scimitars come flying at you.

Regongar : Once Regongar hits 8 he will be a part of your party. Level him to 7 magus then move to Dragon Disciple. By now you will have mighty belts +4 and enjoy his 28 strenght, soon to be 30 strenght, an ac above 40 and he will be front with Valerie.
He also have mirror image, blur, haste, shield, insane shock damage, and even displacement you take later making him impossible to hit, and definately crit immune.

healer : Tristian hands down : Best way is to read up how to get him, and rush there. You can easy pick up Tristian at level 2. He will then be level 3. The Dwarf can wear more armor but dont bring half as much utility.

Linzy : Stick her to full bard maybe 1 into rogue, skill focus trickery and end of Act 2 with all items she sits at 40-42 trickery. She brings insane group utility, buffs, heals, cc and she have really good base attack and as such can dish out some damage. Stick Neckace of Double cross on her coupled maybe with 1 level rogue, ackomplished sneak attacker and enjoy the fiesta.

Out Flank and Precision Attack feats : Do NOT work with ranged. Precision states it clearly but outflank dont. But so you know, outflank does NOT work with ranged weapons. Maybe it should but it dont. For your bow users, take focus on longbow. Its not like you ever will change to anything but Longbow anyway.
For melee, never specialize until late game when you picked up some of the best weapons in game and know you stick to it, but until then get feats like outflank, dodge, improved initiative, precision strike etc.

The game becomes incredibly easy when you have 2 rangers and linzy at back line.
There is not enough room to get up front.

I have tried playing melee characters and unless you have very fast movement.
My ranger is usually on the 2nd or 3rd attack cylke by the time melee gets to the enemy, unless hasted.
Speaking of haste : Regongar and Linzy both can cast haste and buff the party.

So for main character : Anything with a pet to be honest. Inquisitor, Mad Dog Barbarian, Druid, Ranger. It will make your game incredibly much easier.

In most very hard encounters I dont even buff, I right click targets and just watch everything melt. Cant be asked to micro manage cause its just too much damage from my side, and valerie and regongar are close to impossible to hit.

I see little reason to build a main heavy AC main character when you have already those in your team. Utility, its already in your team.

Its up to you how you play the game but I see many cry out how hard the combat is.
Personally, I find the combat rather boring cause its the opposite of hard even when you crank it up. But then again I have made the mistake of min maxing my companions and my main character so its on me.

[Mr Fred]

Thanks for the laugh about your "min maxing" world where ranger is anything but a bottom tier class.

[Biggie]

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

Thanks for the laugh about your "min maxing" world where ranger is anything but a bottom tier class.

Haha, in the PNP world maybe but not in this game. Im a PNPer as well buddy and ranger yeah its meh.
In Pathfinder Kingmaker, the ranger needs zero multi classing, you find some of the best gear for ranged classes early.

My ranger was hitting 100+dmg crits at level 5. Which is not hard since you run some spells so your threat level is always 19-20 atleast.
Rapid shot, many shot and great BAB, makes him have as many attacks as an improved dual wielder but with -2 to hit on his attacks. Add to this a Smilodon that simply put is game breaking.

Did you try Eskanduy with Meat bow from Troll caves?
If not, give it to him, put him in auto mode and when you wonder what is happening to all the monsters, then multiply this by 2 when your main character is also a ranger, and you get the point:)

Inquisitor summoner is another great class, or if you want melee, Mad Dog Barbarian.
Run with a Pet and the game is simple. Thats it.

[Ammellisan]

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

Thanks for the laugh about your "min maxing" world where ranger is anything but a bottom tier class.

this guy gets it, pretty sure the OP plays on normal or lower

[Bijat]

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

Thanks for the laugh about your "min maxing" world where ranger is anything but a bottom tier class.

Pets are abit buged, Smilodon got higher AC or same AC as good geared tower shield spec and similar hp. Think it´s better to take another class with companion pet tho, like sorc.

[Slunko]

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

Thanks for the laugh about your "min maxing" world where ranger is anything but a bottom tier class.

This.

[Bijat]

Don´t understand why u take valerie for a optimized party. However if you rly wan´t valerie she is better as a druid honestly. She got 15cha, 1 more and she can cast all spells. Druid don´t have high demands on stats becuse when they done casting spells they transform and get new stats. Yes you loose 1 spell rank becuse valerine start as fighter but better then other options with her crap stats.

To make a real optimized party tho after tutorial you don´t lev to 2 and go to oleg and hire 5 custom companions. You will loose some banter but it´s minimal (only when u camp) and you can switch out 1 party memeber now and then for companion quests.

[atholk]

I liked the Smilodon until it hit L7 and got big.

At first it was awesome, but more and more it just seems to be too big to get around other characters easily, or gets caught up being unable to get through a doorway if someone else is too near the door.

Leopard starts as small and then goes to medium size. Three attacks comapred to the Smilodon's 5, but the bite attack is also an automatic trip attack as well. Which... holy crap that's good.

[Kyutaru]

Because of Amiri's extra damage on that sword, she makes a good killer early on. Throw all your buffs on her and she'll bypass DR like it's not even there. Just need a few good hits and she'll eliminate wererats and everything else. Ditch Valerie, the barbarian gets the strongest sword in the game.

[Biggie]

Originally posted by Bijat:

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

Thanks for the laugh about your "min maxing" world where ranger is anything but a bottom tier class.

Pets are abit buged, Smilodon got higher AC or same AC as good geared tower shield spec and similar hp. Think it´s better to take another class with companion pet tho, like sorc.

Yeah to be honest I wanted to go through the story and Ranger is brain dead. No need to multiclass, good hitpoints, easy to gear and focus on abilities with and an absolute monster in combat.

I think the other guys dont understand that the Pets in this game indeed is broken at the moment. Smilodon is redicilous and when your party have 2 maybe 3 pets out there.

No I run the game on hard by the way. I was running normal but was boring as hell.
All those enmies people have tactics for you ran in and just 1 shot without pressing pause or buff up. But its similar on hard.

Favored enemies : Humans, Giants, Fey, favored terrain, underground, First World and whatever after this. Rapid shot, many shot, hawkeye and vital sense. Doing upwards of 150 damage on a crit is not uncommon at around lvl 10ish.

Another thing with pets is they wear no armor, so their speed is immense and somehow they pick up aggro like no tomorrow. So IF you are targeted, just click on a pet to attack whoever is at you and he will attack your pet.

I think people should try it before saying too much.

I have tried the game several times through act 1 and 2 with several builds, I have played the ultra min maxing builds of monks, sword saints, various casters. And they all require micro managing on a different level. Sure I agree its fun as well, but are they really effective? not really, actually not at all. I recommend building around the fact you actually do have Linzi as a hyper bard, Regongar as a really, I mean he is close to optimal as a front line dps/tank, you cant even build such a champion yourself due to his immense stats. And Valeries stats might look bad but its not that bad to be honest, and the way aggro work in this game, she and pets picks it up, always.

If your unsure. Pick up a ranger yourself, play through act 1 and early 2 when you get the bow.

One of the reasons its so strong early, mid, late is the damn bow you pick up in act 2. And Acid damage have the least amount of resists in game. Its by far the best damage type.

You can play paladin or fighter ranged but they miss out on the Smilodon and this is what makes the class broken.

But as I said, its a little cheesy.
But I just wanted to move through the game, have some decent fights but not be mawled by developers bad choices of sticking too hard encounters in. After I went ranger, there is no encounter too hard. Does not matter what difficulty you play on.

Final note : Action economy and time : Movement takes time. yeah but I get haste. Ok so you just saved pre fight and prepare with haste, fair enough. Ranged will still fire 1, 2 attack sequences before you, due to pathing you likely wont run straight to the enemy cause you are 2, 3, 4 up there and as such you loose time to attack, and time is damage.

Speed : Pets are incredibly fast. They move at 50+ base speed and the way encounters work they will attack the closest enemy. Oh they got ranged attackers? stick your pets to them. 99/100 your pet will kill that enemy solo faster then your fighter or paladin would.

Anyway enough for those willing to not listen, up to you. For those saying the game is too hard. I recommend ranger to learn it, find items, and get to know what character class would work later, based on items you find. Simply cause as ranger you will have some of the best gear you can find very very early in the game and after this can just enjoy the ride without frustration of "I dont find my magic estoc, I made a sword saint focusing on estoc Im in act 3 I have found a +1, which is reality.

Tip for early game weapons to focus on : Heavy Mace, Great Axe, Scimitar, Kukri, Rapier, LongBow

Thats it.
But as always I recommend never put weapon focus into anything prior to outflank etc, wait and see since by the time you put weapon focus and specialized in your great sword, you found a twice better 2h of another type. Leave the weapon specializations until late game when you got all other feats. Makes it far less frustrating as well.

[atholk]

Also if you check Hedwirg out as the first premade character. His stats are 20 15 13 13 10 10 and that's freakishly good for something Str based if you want to roll that way.

[Shadenuat]

Pretty close to my first playthrough, not bad advice for newbies if you want vanilla playthrough. Played Feyspeaker, used Amiri instead of Regongar and Harrim instead of Tristan. Amiri went into 2-Handed Fighter, Harrim specialized in Necromancy and support. Valerie multied to Stalwart Defender with troll mace; Ekun later in game switched to Agile composite bow for better accuracy. And Linzi, of course, since she basically cancels part of monster bonuses from difficulty - Song, Heroism/Greater Heroism, Improved Invis, Haste, etc. Hard difficulty.

As long as you stick to a formula of 3 strong physical damage dealers, 2 casters/supports and a cleric with improved Phylactery for easy sustain, you will have all the tools to beat all the encounters in the game.

[Smurf-O-Pax]

Hedwig is much better stat wise then all you can build :). And i have to say Waagabond is right. I had around 60 hours before i reached Act 3, always restarting and new builds. Stopped my Ranger try after the Staglord fight, i forgot about the Owlbear and my heart stopped when he broke out. Yeah buffed Smilodon and my Main made short work of him, normally i got a beating.

Pets are really broken in the early game but i think they reach their peak at around lvl 12 maybe earlier. When you wanna see how broken Pets are really start a Druid and let your Smilodon murder the prolouge enemies.

[djinnxy]

I hired a 1 scaled fist monk/ the rest in sylvan sorcerer musetouched aasimar. It's a great alternative for a tanky/spell casting class with an additional pet for dps and/or tanking. This isn't a charge attack shield tanker. Some buffs are required, but it easily tanks as well as shield tanker after that and adds a large amount of damage and/or control.

[shaki92]

This is a looot of bad advice that will backfire terribly in later stages of the game.

[Rahveel]

Ive got a similar build to OP going on, but w/ sylvian sorcerer (pure disables/debuffs for spells) as my main, and put Amiri into 2H fighter w/ fauchard prof. (big sword is cool, but trips/reach/crit offers a lot...). working well at early levels, will see how it pans out later :p